Under
the banner ofInternational
Network of Scientists and Engineers Towards Social
Responsibility (INES)Indian
Institute for Peace, Disarmament Environmental
Protectionarranged
the “Remembering
Hiroshima-Nagasaki” eventsin
Schools and public places in India on 6 to-August 2009.

The
event wasarranged
collaboration with Raman Science Center (A Unit of
National Council of Science Museums, Government of
India) and IPPNW.

Science
quiz. based on Nuclear Weapons was arranged for the
students. More than 200 students
from the 16 schools participated in the science quiz.
Prior to the quiz, school principal was informed the
topic of the quiz.

We
were astonished to observe that students thoroughly
prepare for the subject and they answers very well.
Winner were given the certificates. Youths are the
future of any country and if they are informed-are ready
to involve in humanitarian issues. We have decided to
target more and more of future generation (youths)--for
the humanitarian issue of abolition of nuclear weapons
advocacy.

The
National Conference of International Network of
Scientists and Engineers for Global Responsibility
(INES) was arranged on January 17, 2010 at hotel
Center Point, Ramdaspeth, and Nagpur, India. The
theme of the conference was “Role of Scientists
and Engineers towards Social Responsibility in
Developing Countries”. 82 Scientists and
Engineers from all parts of India attended the
conference.

Conference
aimed at sensitising and informing the scientists,
engineers, civil society, bureaucrats,
politicians, policy makers, media and national
authorities. Eighty two participants from all the
parts of India attended the conference.
Participants included various high ranking
scientists, engineers, researchers, policy makers,
intellectual’s,legal experts, scientists, social workers,
young scientists etc.

The
National conference was divided in two sessions
with the morning session dedicated to speeches,
presentations and a general discussion, and the
afternoon session devoted to group discussions and
brainstorming on various topics.

The
presentation structure and content were formulated
to ensure a clear understanding of the problem
faces by the developing countries of energy for
development and the trends in the worlds to go for
clean and environmental friendly energy, nuclear
weapons, small arms, landmines & cluster
munitions.

The
objective of the discussions was to make the
participants understand the necessity of the role
of civil society and as part of civil society,role they could play in minimizing the
impact on society and environment.

Many
visual supports were used to guarantee a better
understanding of the different topics.

Summary
of the proceedings

The
conference began with lighting the lamps

Dr Balkrishna Kurvey,Executive Committee Member of INES,
Coordinator Indian Campaign to Ban Landminesin his introductory speech said that
scientists and engineers are the elite part of the
society and as a civil society, could not keep
themselves aloof from the various social problems.
Engineers and scientist play a key role in the
society. They are also a part of the problem as
they can be part of the solution. World is facing
with environmental degradation, Global warming,
terrorism, nuclear weapons, illegal trade of small
arms, landmines and cluster munitions, water
scarcity and many more.Ethics in science and engineering is heated
discussion in the world. There is a wave of
pessimism among people and youth. One person could
not make a difference but committed civil society
and NGOs can certainly make a difference, He cited
the example of International Campaign to Ban
Landmines, Ottawa Treaty and Cluster Munitions
Coalition and this is the glaring example of a
civil society success in humanitarian work. He
informed the work of ICBL & CMC, IANSA, IPPNW
and other NGOs & civil society for the various
causes and request scientist and engineers to
associate themselves for the social cause and
became the member of INES

ADMIRAL
RAMDAS DELIVERING HIS KEY NOTE ADDRESS

Admiral Ramdas,
former Chief of Indian Navy in
his inaugural speechsaid thatscientists andEngineers should have to do a lot of things which are relevant to
society and people of the country. No doubt, the
future is technology but scientists should not
forget their moral responsibilities, Admiral
Ramdas highlighted that judicial and religious use
of technology is must. Scientists and engineers
should be committed to great challenges in new
era. The speech of Ramdas was a realeye opener. He took the brief review of
developments and happening in

Social
and technological fields.We are blindly following footsteps of
western world without any social and moral
responsibility. In the name of SEZ Government is
grabbing lands of poor in rural areas by depriving
them from daily breads. In China only 5 out of
1000 SEZ remained but inIndia we are creating SEZs.

There
are more than 80 percent of populations living in
poverty still some people are busy in showing
their money power. Asking a question, do we really
have a social responsibility’? Scientific &
engineers community in the country at large did
nothing for the benefit of common man. He
highlighted the 6 challenges which are being faced
by new generation. Climate change, honesty in
work, sense of responsibility in scientists,
public servant etc towards people, terrorism,
disarmament, nuclear weapons, disaster management
and receptivity of elders for younger generations
are a majorchallenges
are not understood and managed effectively.We
are No. 3 in technical manpower but 80% of our
population living under poverty and big problem in
energy consumption. He quotedGandhi“I will not rest till no one person will
shed tear”. There will be good and bad
scientists. Global warming is one of the major
problems in our country as well as in world. We
must seriously think about it, or it will bring
catastrophe.Situation
and appreciation are must go together. He said
“There will no science without religion and
there can be no religion without science.While inventing we do not share certain
value of ethics.

Unfortunately
we have a serious problem around out neighbourhood.
I am really happy that in our country military is
not interfering in politics and this is our
strength and it should be sustain,

We
are facing tremendous challenges and it is the
nuclear weapons. Nuclear Weapons states have
nuclear weapons by which we can kill each other
1000 times.There
is no transparency in nuclear policy in the world.
It is necessary for the people to know about the
danger.

Admiral Ramdas
said why the person like me serving Indian navy
for 44 years and 9 months is propagating Nuclear
disarmament and disarmament. India Pakistan fought
3 wars but we could not solve out our problem. By
possessing nuclear weapons we could not solve our
problem. The vehicle of change is ultimately with
people. Nuclear wars may start due to
misunderstanding between
India
and
Pakistan
. It takes only 8 to 10 minutes for missile to
reach its targets in India and Pakistan and it has
only 3 minutes to decide the missile is carrying
nuclear war heads or conventional weapons. Nuclear
weapons are not military weapons but are a
political weapon. Nuclear weapons are economical
burden; economical disaster; completely
inefficient and ethically and morally it is not
acceptable. Admiral Ramdas quoted Mahatma Gandhi
After bombing of Hiroshima Gandhi said, “No
weapons can be destroyed by counter weapons”.

Under
the disarmament issues he heighted the illegal
trade of small Arms and light weapons, landmines
and cluster munitions. Admiral Ramdas praised
noble laureate Ms Jody Williams for her foresight
and tremendous work on Ban Landmines.InternationalCampaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) has paved
way for the work of civil society in disarmament
and this is one of biggest success storyof civil society and NGOstowards a disarmament. He appeals to the
Indian Government to sign the Ottawa Treaty as
early as possible. He has also appeal for the
banning of cluster munitions on humanitarian
ground.

He
praised the efforts of Dr. Balkrishna Kurvey who
is working to spread the message of INES in India
including nuclear weapons, small arms, landmines
& cluster munitions and other issues.

Mr. Date: Chairman,
Institution of Engineers of Indiasaid thattheconference
“Role of Scientists and Engineers toward social
responsibility in developing countries cover the
basic aim of INES working for issues related to
energy, global warming, environmental protection,
disarmament and role of engineers and scientists.
The industrial revolution and further developments
of the processes involved in manufacturing
resulted in lot of pollution of the environment
which was considered as necessary evil for the
development. This has resulted in depletion of
Ozone layers which created awareness and the
movement for the protection to restrict the
release of unwanted substances and toxic material
in the environment. The engineers and scientists
should work together for new ethics called as
Environmental Ethics. In educational field, it is
necessary to add environmental engineering
curriculum in harmony with social and economic
goals to all branches, and made compulsory to all
working in Industries. Fossil fuel is limited and
now we must seriously start working to use solar,
wind and other environmental friendly sources to
create energy which will help in minimizingGlobal warming. The rise in the atmosphere
is due to Steam, Carbon-Di-Oxide, Mithane, Nitrous
Oxide, Chloro-Fluro and Ozone. We are adding the
pollution and that created the problem of Global
Warming.

The
Engineers and Scientists are the builders of the
nation and have major role to play in making the
life on this earth beautiful by integrating
eco-friendliness in our thoughts and action.

He
thanks Dr. Kurvey for educating regarding small
arms, landmines and cluster munitions. He urges
the scientists and engineers not to take such
inhuman projects and invent some ways and means to
get rid of this inhuman weapon.

Mr Saini, Director,
National Civil Defence College, Ministry of Home
Affairs, Government of India
said neither I am scientists or engineer but work
with them for civil defence. Students not taught
to protect themselves. Scientist and Engineers
should come forward and pass the information to
the people which are dangerous. Engineers should
start working to build the safe houses and he has
given the example of earthquake in Bhuj, Gujarat
was due to overhead water tank many people died.
Engineering liquid carrying trucks are major cause
of accidents in India. Energy saving is must for
all developed and developing countries. Start the
use of CLF bulbs which will save 50 Watt per day
per house andwe will save million of CO2 which are
spread into atmosphere by power plant. We must
ratify our mistake.

He
dealt in length the nuclear power. It is use for
peaceful work in food product, biological toxins,
Medial purpose etc.We have to understand and safety must be
adhered to. Our Institute is working to minimize
the effect of nuclear radiation. In case of all
out nuclear war, world is doom and 2012 will come
true. Every nation come forward and think
seriously on disarmament issues of various weapons
like nuclear, small arms, landmines & cluster
munitions..

Dr. Tapan
Chakarabarty, Director, National Environmental
Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Ministry
of Science & Technology, Government of India
said that all the Institutions carrying out
Research & Development (R & D) should bear
the responsibility towards society. Prosperity can
bring peace but it should not be based on
annihilation of environment and blood and sweat of
people. Today worldwide we are talking of Global
responsibility, .1000 scientific and industrial research is
going on but it must base on the social concern
and Scientists and Engineers must adhere to social
responsibility.

There
is strong discussion going on in developing
countries regarding should genetically modified
crops should be releases or not? NGO should come
out and informed the public regarding its
feasibility. You can capture the local market but
we have to see the wider horizon. Two days back I
was in Sunderban area of West Bengal.Flood water used to make havoc in this
part.But
flood water could be making into drinking water.
Researcher invented cheap and easy to handle units
which convert flood water into drinking water and
200 units were distributed through Ramakrishna
Mission. NEERI has a mission and working for cheap
solar electricity and other environmental friendly
natural resources to create energy. Scientist and
Engineers must observe that they are part of
society and they have social responsibility
towards fellow citizens. We are facing lot of
problems, but we should adopt. Innovative cost
reduction and as per local situation. Scientists
and Engineers should invent some methods to
minimize the destruction caused by landmines and
cluster munitions. Such type of National
conference in India is a good step to raise the
awareness of the issues among the scientists and
engineers and people.

Dr. Ramesh Thakre,
Vice-Chairman
Bharat Krishak Samaj, Former World Bank/ADBEx.
World Bank/ADB/USAID-Project advisor in Africa addressed
the delegates on Effect of global warming.
Agriculture likely to suffer from climate change.
The hungry and poor will be mostly affected in
developing and under developed countries.
Agriculture is likely to suffer losses because of
high temperature, droughts, floods and soil
degradation threatening the food security. The
Middle East and North Africa are particularly
exposed to water shortages. 155 to 600 million
people may suffer an increase in water stress in
North Africa with a 3 degree Celsius temperature
rise. Changes in temperature, rainfall and
climatic extremes will only add to the stress on
agricultural resources in a region, where land
availability and degradation, food price shocks
and population growth are already a major concern.
Agriculture should be promoted as a key player in
the reduction of greenhouse gases. Conservation
agriculture, water harvesting, forestation,
sustainable management of forests and rangelands,
solid storage of carbon, improved fertilizer use
and careful promotion of bio energy in
climatically suitable should be applied to
mitigate climate changes. Dr. Thakre in detail
dealt withthe annual greenhouse Gas Emission by
various sectors.

Dr.
Thakre said that there are around 8,000 edible
plants used by humans out which 150 are under
cultivation. 10-20 species provided all the food
required for humankind. It indicates that there is
still much scope for the newer crops species and
here the role of scientist and engineers begins.
There is a need for efficient water use. We all
have something to give to this world. The question
is what are you contributing to make the world a
better place to live? Need of the hour is to save
and protect the biodiversity, for our food
security for the man kind and for this we need to
work together. We have to use technologies and
also three R: Reduce; Reuse and Recycle our
resource to benefit the progress and protection of
Bio-Diversity is very essential. We have to work
on (1) to maintain the consistency of the results;
(2) adhere to the rules of fairness; (3)
goal-oriented rationality and (4) to ensure the
effectiveness of the mechanism. I feelI very strongly believe that, for the
climate change and or global warming in this
world, we need to work together. All nations must
work together and for this we must use the
knowledge and wisdom and use the principle as in
Sanskrit saying “ANO BHADRA KRATAVO YANTU
VISVATA” mean “LET THE NOBLE THOUGHS COME FROM ALL
OVER” and we must use this to guide and protect
our world and its diversity in this global warming
which is affecting the climate change and our
environment.

On
disarmament issue, he informed that I was in
Africa for 28 years and travelled extensively and
seen the catastrophe and havoc caused by landmines
and small arms. Due to leadership of Nobel
laureate Jody Williams the landmines scourge is
minimize but we have to work for cluster munitions
and small arms and scientist and engineers must
associate themselves with this humanitarian
organizations and work for mankind.

Dr. S. M.Taley,
Professor of Agriculture Engineering and Director
Agro-ecology and Environmental Center,
A.D.Agriculture University.
In India as well as in all developing countries
and under developed countries agriculture is main
livelihood business. Due to scarcity of water,
agricultureproduction is diminishing. We have to
involve more and more farmers and motivate them to
undertake more responsibilities to enhance the
water use efficiently both in rain fed and
irrigated farming. Dr. Taley informed his research
work which is “More Crop per Drop of Water”
which solve water crises in agriculture in
developing and under developed countries.
Rainwater Management, Hydrologic cycle. Total
water on Earth is Saline water 97%, Fresh water 3%
(35 million km3).Fresh water is consist Frozen in ice caps
and glaciers 75%, Deep underground 14% and
Surface, ground water, lakes, rivers, soil
moisture and atmosphere 11%. This fresh water is
accessible from lakes 0.35%; Rivers 0.03%, Soil
moisture 0.06% and Atmosphere 0.035%. The water
useses in Agriculture 70%’Industrial use 22% and
Domestic use 08%

Each
year nearly 34,000 people die from water and
sanitation related diseases. 1.1. billion People
lack access to safe drinking water and over 2.4
billion do not have adequate sanitation or no
means to waste water disposal. Of the world’s
fresh water resources, less than 1 per cent is
accessible for human use. 90 to 95% of sewage in
developing countries is dumped untreated and
polluting the usable water supply. Women and
female children spend more than 10 million people
in year carrying water from distance sources every
year.

There
is same amount of water on earth today as there
was 3 billion years ago. By next two decades use
of water by human will increase by 40%.Half the
people living in Asia have no access to sanitation
and access to safe drinking water. Polluted
drinking water is the largest single killer of
children in Asia and globally claims the life of
one child every 30 seconds.

In
countries where there is conflict or use of arms
by warlords, planting of landmines and cluster
munitions, aggravate the water situation. Water
sources are diminish or polluted and many people
die with water bound diseases. It has been
confirmed by the study carries out by the
agriculture and other scientist in Africa that
landmines and use of small arms, cluster munitions
denied the drinking water to the civilians. This
is manmade epidemic and banning of landmines,
cluster munitions and illegal arms is the way to
get rid of this problem.

Scientists
and engineers should come together around the
world and work of ways and means to over this
anomaly.

Colonel Khedkar
I fought 1965 and 1971 India Pakistan war and 1962
India China war, Due to landmines I witnessed my
soldiers lost their lives and limbs as well as
civilian also became the victims. In 2002
landmines on massive scale were planted along
India Pakistan border in Rajasthan, Punjab and
Jammu & Kashmir. Not single bullet was fired
and ‘thank god there was no war’ but we in
Army more than 500 soldiers became the victims of
landmines and more than 1000 civilians also became
the pray to this inhuman weapon. We in Indiawere not aware of the civilian victims of
landmines but due to data collected by IIPDEP
(Indian Campaign to Ban Landmines) the exact
figuresof
civilians were came into limelight. Due to
constant work of Indian CBL, landmines victims
were awarded compensation as well as to the
farmers who lost their 3 crops. In modern warfare.
a landmine has a little role to play. Innocent
civilians are victims and it must be banned. As
India is democratic and public oriented country,
India must sign Ban landmines treaty.

India
and Pakistan is producer of cluster munitions. No
cluster munitions were used by both of them
against each other. But this may change in future
and they may use the cluster munitions. People
living in the Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu &
Kashmir will be victims. For the sake of innocent
civilians and humanitarian ground, cluster
munitions should not be used. The momentum started
by the Cluster Munitions Coalition is a
commendable. Indian CBL should educate the Member
of Parliaments of border state of Rajasthan,
Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir through advocacy
event and build public pressure on Government of
India to sign the Cluster Munitions treaty.

Illegal
Trade of Small arms is also one of the big problem
in India in the States of North East India,
Rajasthan, Punjab , Jammu & Kashmir. Advocacy
events is essential to education the people as
well as policy makers and member of parliaments.

Scientists
and Engineers should involve themselves with this
humanitarian issue. As many of you are on higher
position and policy makers, educate and inform
your department/colleagues and build momentum that
India will sign the Mine Ban Treaty as well as
Cluster Munitions treaty and work of small arms as
well as for nuclear disarmament.

Many
of the participants took the floor to express
their support to the INES and promised to work in
India on various issues discussed in the
conference.

As
the participants belong to higher strata and
echelon of society and some are policy makers,
they all promised that they would bring the
message to their colleagues and try to convince
them that it is their social responsibility to
work for people in our country and for world.

Participants
promised to work under disarmament for nuclear
weapons abolition, landmines, cluster munitions,
small arms which are curse to the society. It is
there social responsibility to work for the
victims and strongly urge out government to sign
the Mine Ban (Ottawa Treaty) and
Cluster Munitions treaties.

At
the end of the discussions several resolutions
were approved by consensus:

Proper
follow up to this conference is required.

A
needs assessment should be undertaken in the
region to find out the extent and magnitude of
the involvement of scientists and engineers.

Additional
workshops in various states of India should be
arranged in order to raise awareness among the
scientists and engineers.

There
should be more emphasis on video presentation
in the future conference since these are much
more effective in carrying out the message to
the participants so they should be involved in
the movement

Conclusion

Overall
the conferencewas a positive experience. The conference
achieved its objectives of raising awareness among
the participants and mobilizing them to be more
actively involved. It can be assumed that the
impact of the conference was broader as the event
was well covered by the local and national media.

The
participants showed a keen interest in the topics
covered and felt it was a good initiative. As
mentioned earlier many of them were not familiar
with the issue. They felt that such conference was
very informative. They were very concerned by the
suffering caused by the use of miss-use of
science.

Some
participants were promised that they will actively
work on the issue by sensitizing their colleagues
and communities. However it is the role of INES,
the IIPDEP to keep the momentum going and
coordinate follow up activities.